I just love fruit pies. Have I mentioned that before? Love, love, love ’em. Especially mixed fruit pies, like this Pear-Raspberry Lattice-Top Pie.

If you’ve never made a lattice-top pie before, don’t worry. It’s super duper easy. Here’s one good trick from Ken to get you started right…shape the pastry which will become the top crust into a square (as opposed to a disk) before rolling!

I like to roll my pie crust between two pieces of wax paper–it just makes the process so much easier. For extra ease, I also refrigerate the pastry before rolling it out. This isn’t as necessary for oil-based crusts, but it’s an important step if you use a solid fat like butter and/or shortening.

Another lattice trick: use a pizza cutter to cut strips of crust! (I made eight strips and followed the clever diagram given in Pie, which makes the actual assembly of the lattice a cinch.)

The color of this pie is gorgeous. It doesn’t smell too shabby coming out of the oven, either.

I was happy to be able to share this pie with several good friends of ours. As we were eating our first slices, Levi asked if this might not be “One of those times” where it would be appropriate to just cut the rest of the pie up and finish it right then and there. Indeed, it did turn out to be the thing to do.

Along with mixed fruit pies, I love eating outside in the summer, twinkle lights, glasses of wine, and good company.